Battle of Khost

The Battle of Khost was a major battle of the Soviet-Afghan War, fought on 5 September 1986 near the city of Khost in Khowst Province (near the border with Pakistan). The Red Army attacked an Afghan Mujahideen stronghold with tanks and infantry but the Mujahideen, supported by military advisers from the People's Republic of China and United States, held off the attack.

Background
Due to the Soviet Union's involvement in Afghanistan, their Chinese and American rivals sent military advisers to help the Mujahideen fight off the Soviets. General Lev Kravchenko of the Red Army planned an attack on the border outpost of Khost, which was defended by Mullah Rahman. Rahman asked for the United States and Chinese to supply him with weapons, but American advisor Jason Hudson instead sent him Vietnam War veterans Alex Mason and Jason Hudson, who were experienced in covert operations and would serve well in leading his men. Rahman was unkind to them, telling Hudson that he needed weapons, not soldiers.

Rahman told the advisors that the men defended the passes, as any Russian advance would come through the valleys. Hudson believed that American weapons would give them an edge, but Woods and Mason told them that the Russians would come at the Mujahideen in strength in number and with heavy armor with brute force, and Mason said that the Mujahideen had no experience with the weaponry that the Americans brought. The Americans said that they should be on the front lines, and as they said that, Russian jets began to bomb the city. The Americans and Tian Zhao rode to the village outside of the Mujahideen camp, where three BTRs and Russian infantry were in close combat amidst the ruins of the town. The advisors used mortar shells to destroy the vehicles and assisted in taking down every last infantryman that the Soviets could hurl. After clearing the village, the foreigners planted a crater charge in order to prevent any more Russian armored vehicles from reaching the village, before being redirected to defending the camp from the Russians, as they were throwing everything they had at Hudson and Rahman.

The Mujahideen's advisors rode on horseback to the center of the battlefield, where they destroyed the two Russian tanks firing on the base and later shot down a couple of USSR helicopters and gunships. After doing so, they proceeded to assist in the recapture of a Mujahideen weapons cache to the east, killing many Soviet troops and shooting down many of their helicopters in the process. But Mason, Woods, and Zhao were told to return to base to confront a problem that Hudson said they should see for themselves. Mason held off several Soviet troops with only an AK-47, mowing them down as they came through the valley. But when he returned to base, he found out that the Russians wanted to give the Mujahideen one last display of brute force, so Mason decided to give them one last display of courage. Along with the Mujahideen, he charged at a huge tank, which was escorted by two smaller tanks. Mason's horse was killed but he hitched a ride on Woods' horse as a passenger before jumping onto the tank and blowing it up, but not before Colonel Kravchenko escaped the tank. Mason and Woods captured Kravchenko and interrogated him, and found out that Kravchenko sold wanted terrorist Raul Menendex weapons and Kravchenko only wanted money, and Kravchenko revealed that the guns went to Cuba, Angola, and the Third World, and when he said that Menendez had people in the CIA, Woods shot him. Just then, the Mujahideen betrayed Mason, Tian Zhao, Woods, and Hudson and left them for dead in the desert, but they were cared for by some villagers who found them lying alone in the desert.

Despite the betrayal of the Mujahideen against the American advisers, the Afghans won the battle in the end. The Soviets lost a veteran commander and several troops in a bloody battle. Mason killed 180 Soviets in the battle.